'36 Ford pickup needs engine help....
 

Hello,

I have a '36 Ford pickup with the 59AB engine. I removed the exhaust manifolds to have repainted and noticed water in the passenger side exhaust manifold. I checked oil dipstick and water was present. I checked the radiator and oil was present. I drained the oil and water was present. I pulled the spark plugs and #2 cylinder plug was fouled and all carboned up. All other cylinders with their spark plugs were clean and dry and no carbon buildup. I shined a flashlight in all spark plug holes and only #2 plug hole showed carbon buildup and what appeared to be small amount of rusty water. I did a compression test on all cylinders and here are my findings.
#1....100 lbs
#2....70 lbs (with fouled plug and carbon buildup)
#3....100 lbs
#4....90 lbs
#5....130 lbs
#6....125 lbs
#7....115 lbs
#8....65 lbs
Do you think a head gasket replacement is in order for both sides and what would cause #8 to be low compression compared to the rest (I rechecked twice #8 compression and same results).
Before all this, pickup started right up, never over heated and seemed to run fine.

Any comments and help is greatly appreciated.
THANK YOU,

Bruce in Ca.

Re: '36 Ford pickup needs engine help....
 

Pull the heads and pan and report back on what you find.

Re: '36 Ford pickup needs engine help....
 

Hello to all....
Been awhile since I worked on my '36 Ford pickup to remove passenger side head (I suspect a blown head gasket). In the meantime I had been busy refurbishing my old Simplex Servi Cycle and to color match with my '36 Ford pickup (pictures below). I finally have removed all 24 nuts (one came off with the stud attached) without snapping any studs. I used a 1/2" drive ratchet w/socket, breaker bar, dremel cut-off wheel and a nut splitter to safely remove all 24 nuts. Next step is carefully remove and inspect head, gasket and block. I will let you all know back how head removal goes. SORRY about sideways picture of head. NOTE: this is a 59AB block but passenger side head is an 81A (which possibly explains lower compression on passenger side per my earlier above stated compression readings).

THANK YOU,
Bruce in California